Sunday, 9 November 2014

Rant: Pokémon and I, what happened?

Hey, so I haven't been blogging for so long because of my busy life in my college years. Yes my honeymoon first year semesters are over since last year March. Actually, many things have happened and it kinda change the person I was to I am now. I figured I need to keep this blog running again because it has been do well for storing all my entries and all... So yeah. The posts are going to be random but oh well.

Today I am so going to rant about stuffs that I have always been loved for the earlier years. Guess what is it? The Pokémon movie. As you may have know or not, I have been a big fan for Pokémon since I was young. Ever since I was like 5 years old, I have been exposed to the franchise. I started from the anime series, the earliest one. I still remember how Ash met Pikachu, and how he met Misty and all. Those were all nostalgic. And at the age of primary school, my sister just happened to get a copy of Pokémon game. I had so much fun playing Pokémon game because I could finally explore the world myself. I was more than happier to own a Pokémon of my own.

I remember I was really confused for where to get Poké balls, I was so desperate to capture a Pidgey. I adored Pigeotto so much, and I never really liked Pikachu. Probably I was a hipster since young but I really am not a fan of stuffs that are overrated. Pikachu is the most mainstream and overrated Pokémon to date, now that I don't hate but I don't favour it much. Anyway... Pokémon has been accompanying since like forever, it is my lifetime companion! You could say that my life wouldn't be wonderful and perfect without Pokémon, in fact Pokémon is one of the biggest factor that inspired me to take animation and art courses. I would always doodle stuffs about my favourite Pokémon. I had a special liking for the Japanese theme songs more than the cheap rip-off English remakes of it. Not sure if it's called remake or adaption but they are just plain sucks... Err, anyway. I maybe be biased for the theme song but I am not biased to any anime, actually Digimon also took big part of my childhood.

Pokémon anime is like, fun? Fun for my childhood. Back in the days, I couldn't get to watch all Pokémon anime because they are so scattered, it's really hard to get the full copy of a Pokémon season but rather Digimon is easier to watch. Anyhow that makes Pokémon anime more exclusive to be watching for, but then one thing I realized: Pokémon anime plots are almost the same. It's basically Ash travelling to somewhere with his co., and then Team Rocket fucking come and trying to steal Pikachu, what the hell? Don't they get tired of it? They have been failing over and over again. And not to mention Ash's Pokémon are so damn weak. He doesn't even evolve them! It's so boringgggggg to watch this repetitive sequence over and over again. It's basically the same thing whenever he travels to a new region. Seriously the company who's making this anime, I have something to tell you:

Stop wasting all the papers for animating Ash's stupid stories and start developing some stories that involved with other characters. I really liked the Pokémon Origins, and I am DEFINITELY looking forward for the Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire special anime. They may be cliche but then they are different, that is what buying me to watch. People might just say the show is for kids and all... But then, don't we all are mostly fans that are already around 20-25 years old by now? Sure, they can still market the series for the little kids but... Even as a kid myself back in the days, I found it boring too.

The only thing that keeps me hopeful for the anime is only the movies. Remember how amazing it was when Mewtwo and Mew were having titan battle to each other, the clone vs the real and all? And it was super emotional when Ash turned into a rock, all the Pokémon crying over for him and all. And the awesomeness of the Lugia movie, what was it called? Pokémon 2000! It is my ALL TIME favourite, I'm not going to lie that movie makes me cry more than the first movie. I am just totally moved by how beautifully the animation and story were executed. It was like the best made Pokémon movie, not to mention Latios and Latias movie, they were good too. Yes, every year the Pokémon movies were great. Up until Giratina's story involved with Shaymin, things start to get common.

I am not complaining about the works, they are still great. In fact I appreciate how all the backgrounds were perfectly painted. If you observe properly, all the backgrounds are actually manually painted. I don't care if they use photo montage or something, just think about it that they had to paint each background for one specific shot! It's like, tons of works! And then, the animation too, they are all really good. But then it is really too bad that the movie, series or even books rules are no matter how well you executed them with flawless graphics, camera angles or the beautiful grammars you applied to some certain media you want to express the story, if the story fails then everything else is just a failure. Story is the key for everything. Yes, I am saying it: The latest Pokémon movies are just plain suckish. It's turning into the anime now. I still watch it but then I don't get the goosebump I had few years ago. Why has everything turned into so simple?

You know what, if I was given the opporturnity to hold the pen and write the story (or keyboard to type stuffs out) I would definitely dedicate my all to the story for Pokémon. They should really learn something from the manga, Pokémon Special/Adventures. I tell you, it's the only best thing that represents Pokémon the most from my expectation. In fact that manga exceeded my expectation! The story and everything is just so interesting and involved with a lot of events and stuffs. The anime and the movie? They just need to reboot for something better.

I really don't mind if Pokémon restarted all over again with Red. I'm not so sure about it but 25 episodes can actually finish a good stories. I have started to watch some anime and most of them end around 25 episodes. Kill La Kill, for example, is a great anime and it's not lengthy. They get straight to the point. Don't go tell me it's not enough, because actually it IS more than enough to finish a season within 25 episodes with only 25 minutes for it. Sailor Moon, anyone? The 1990s anime was so long-winded and it's extending too much. The actual story is just pretty short and the new reboot of the Sailor Moon series, the Crystal series is ending at episode 14 and they are starting a new season for the rest of the planned episodes.

So yeah, this is basically my rant for the Pokémon... Anyhow the game doesn't disappoint me, I am anticipating the new Pokémon games like crazy now. Ruby and Sapphire are my favourite games, I hope the new ones will be as good or even better!

Alright, time to do my assignment now. Until next time, I will try to pikafy my entries. :)

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Personal Preface

Hello! I'm Wallace Cheung. That's just my "stage name" so you probably won't know my real name... Until you really stalked me maybe? If you really know then it proves that you stalked me! Hehe, alright I know I'm lame. I'm an art student! Not really, an animation student who's currently studying at The One Academy, Malaysia. I always have this dream, this dream is to work under Pixar Inc. or Disney Animation! Haha, dream big I know. I'm also interested in Illustration. Oh well, I should stop blabbering so much and let you find the rest of the facts of mine from my blog post. No point spoiling you here! Feel free to contact me, by mentioning me in Twitter: @wuzzleywalley. Let's see if you really read this and follow me... (Jk.)